January 4 2015
International art dealer Guy Wildenstein went on trial in Paris Monday on charges of tax fraud and money laundering, after two relatives tipped off investigators about the family’s financial dealings — prompting authorities to demand a staggering 553 million euros ($602 million) in back taxes. In one of the biggest tax fraud trials ever held in France, investigating judges say Wildenstein and his late brother Alec fraudulently undervalued the enormous family patrimony in the estate tax return after their father Daniel, a French citizen and a renowned art dealer, collector and historian, died in Paris in 2001.
This “hidden” estate consisted of properties in New York and the Virgin Islands, art galleries including New York’s Wildenstein & Co., racehorses, thoroughbreds and companies dealing with their exploitation, a private business jet and a 75,000-acre ranch in Kenya where parts of the seven-Oscar movie “Out of Africa” were shot.
Daniel Wildenstein was also known to own many paintings by Monet, Renoir, Caravaggio, Picasso, Bonnard, Velazquez, Fragonard and Rembrandt.